A team of four MCF members of staff went to Mombasa on the night of Wednesday, the 5th of May for a four day recruitment drive. The mission which lasted from Thursday morning to Sunday was intended to seek for needy girls from Vipingo, Shimba Hills and the surrounding areas for admission at MCF Yatta vocational training centre. The team consisted of Hilda Waweru, Festus Musyoka, Stephen Mwangangi and Isaac Mulli who joined the team on the Friday.
Description of the Areas Visited
Vipingo is a rural slum area located in Kilifi district in the Coast Province of Kenya. The area is densely populated and the residents are extremely poor. The people live on small pieces of land as squatters and have mud walled and grass thatched houses. The inhabitants of Vipingo mainly rely on farming on the small pieces of land having to rely on convectional rainfall. The yield is usually low and is basically used for home consumption. Another percentage of the population is involved in small scale trade selling little consumables like fish and other small items and doing other petty businesses in order to earn a living.
Early girl pregnancies and school drop out is very rampant affecting young girls in primary school. Children population is very high with the large number of children having to rely on minimal resources for survival. Literacy level is noted to be very low with majority of the population possessing low levels of education. Notably, not many of the residents possess tertiary training. A negligible percentage of the population has gone to secondary school.
Majority of the girls do not complete primary education and the few who do, do not proceed to secondary school while higher education in colleges or universities is unheard of.
Shimba Hills is located along the Coastline of Mombasa. The area is sparsely populated and the inhabitants are characteristically poor. Majority of them rely on farming for survival and literacy level is very low. Girl child education is not strongly embraced and is yet to take root in the area. Most of the girls get married off at a very young age in order to bring their families some income through dowry.
The major problems affecting this area include lack of sufficient food, little access to education and educational facilities, lack of adequate and modern health facilities, very little farming land or none at all, scanty shelter characterized by mud walled and makuti thatched semi-permanent houses and poor in-roads.
The children and especially the girls are worst hit by this state of affairs and their proper growth is affected lacking the opportunity to experience life in fullness. They are subjected to early marriages, early pregnancies, working as house helps where they experience various forms of hardships and others end up in child sex tourism in order to earn a living. Some remain in their homes to help in the household chores where some are involved in small trade or selling the local mnazi (coconut) brew. Others hang around as idlers for lack of something meaningful to do. They lack the opportunity to access education to higher levels.
Most of the orphans do not have any one to take care of them since majority of them have been neglected and left to suffer in abject poverty.
Outcome of the Mission
The undertaking involved interviews to young girls at MCF Vipingo and home visits. The interviews were intended to identify the neediest girls in need of care and education and getting to know their life stories. The homes visited exhibited the high level of poverty in the area and the kinds of hardships that the residents go through in their daily lives.
Young girls were found to be adversely affected by the life setting of the area and the traditional practices within the community. Early marriages, early pregnancies and the ravages of poverty complicate the lives of the young girls more and this mars their proper childhood growth.
The team collaborated with MCF community in Vipingo, the local authorities including the area councilor, chief and church leaders in identifying the needy girls. The girls who were identified include child mothers, orphans and destitute ones.
The team spent three days in Vipingo due to the high number of needy cases and one day in Shimba Hills. Girls came from as far as Malindi.
Conclusion
A total of 36 girls were identified and interviewed for admission at MCF Yatta vocational training centre.